


The Only Stars I Needed (Yeosang)

by Reina1



Series: Storyline Entries [1]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: ATEEZ Global Storyline Contest, ATEEZ Storyline Event, Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Angst, Gen, Storyline, Storyline Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:14:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25184632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reina1/pseuds/Reina1
Summary: My entry for the ATEEZ Global Storyline Contest.None of this was Yeosang's fault. He had been perfect, had tried his very best to be perfect and keep everyone happy even if it meant that he couldn’t keep himself happy, but it all led to nothing.
Series: Storyline Entries [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824481
Kudos: 7





	The Only Stars I Needed (Yeosang)

The school campus was dark. Unlike the times before everything became reversed, this darkness wasn’t accompanied by the warm glow of the lamps next to the sidewalks, nor the faint chatter of students secretly meeting in front of the gate to sneak off to Hongdae’s nightlife. This darkness didn’t give way to a sunny day, where kids would clamor around my desk, saying, “Kang Yeosang, let’s go to the mall!” Or, “You’re so smart, Yeosang, you’ve got to teach me this someday.”

No, this darkness came from within the school, its halls and rooms actively taking away light from its surroundings. The only words I could hear now were mutters from a nearby alley, speaking of violence in slurred remarks that grew closer. This darkness gave way to a cloudy day that tinted everything a somber gray, and when the clouds parted, the sun that peered out seared through the dreams of everything it landed on. 

I stared up at the school, watched it until I felt like its darkness was going to suck me in again and fill up the void in me with its hateful tendrils, then turned and ran all the way back home. 

An alarm that I had forgotten I’d set woke me up the next morning. I looked at the calendar.  _ July 29th _ . Right. Today was the day.

I picked up the bag I had packed weeks ago and slung it over my back for what must have been the tenth time. The hard edges of the books inside dug into my back and pressed against the scars there, but I ignored the pain like always and carried them out with nothing more than a wince. 

I could hear the whispers start up again as I walked down the street. Why did people think that a person lost their ability to hear when they became an outcast? Maybe they  _ wanted  _ me to hear. I had lost the ability to care about others when I had lost all the others that ever cared about me. 

None of this was my fault, though. I had been perfect, had tried my very best to be perfect and keep everyone happy even if it meant that I couldn’t keep myself happy, but it all led to nothing. 

It had been a bright day when  _ it  _ had happened. I had left school with my bag weighing down on my shoulder but with the smiles around me lifting my spirits up. My friends and I were going to a karaoke restaurant tonight because it was finally the weekend, and I had been walking home content and drowsy. 

Suddenly the sky turned gray and the air around me had filled with a white flurry; not snow, but the particles were so plentiful that I had found myself standing in a blanketed environment with nothing else to see… except a masked man walking towards me. His hat had cast a shadow on his face, but I could still see that the eyes were cold and strangely familiar, though I didn’t know how. 

“Find yourself before you find the others,” he had said. I hadn’t seen any movement in his face, but the voice was clear in my mind. “And be cautious that you do not get trapped inside yourself.” He’d pulled out an hourglass with the sand all at the bottom, but suddenly it started to flow upwards, and in a flash of epileptic motion around me, I had found myself back at school, where everything had changed.

I couldn’t take the bullying. I didn’t know how to — no one had ever been so vicious to me before, but suddenly everyone was. Adults said,  _ Be hopeful. Look up at the stars in the night sky. _

But the stars did not shine in the night sky that I was looking at, and I continued to walk looking down on the ground. Finally the scars in my mind ached more than the scars on my body, and I dropped out of school. 

Now I was finally ready to let go of my past, the one that was so blindingly bright. I hadn’t heeded the masked man’s words at all. I let go of everyone and lost myself in the process. Now I had nothing else to occupy my mind except memories of myself, which seemed like they were stolen from an entirely different person. 

I left my old school books at a donation center, then quickly walked away with my face covered. Still, a few students hanging around food stalls eyed me on the way back, and I prayed that I was insignificant enough to them that they would finally leave me alone. 

When I arrived back at my dilapidated home, I wasn’t prepared to see people there — people I had never met but who felt so close to me that I collapsed from a forgotten warmth in my chest.

A man with dimples helped me up. “Yeosang. We’ve finally found you.”

The tallest of the group put a gentle hand on my shoulder. “And now we won’t let you get lost ever again.” 

I realized that it wasn’t reality that made me lose my dreams, it was my decision to surrender. I met the shining eyes of each of the seven men in front of me, and I made another decision there: I would never surrender again. 

These were my stars in the night sky, and they would never stop burning. 

  
  
  



End file.
